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Pert Near Sandstone

Pert Near Sandstone member Nate Sipe got his start playing guitar, but his transition to mandolin (as well as fiddle) was about practicality. A guitar is a big instrument to lug around when you’re hopping freight trains.

“When I started traveling I did some pretty long extended trips out of the country,” Sipe said during a phone interview. “A guitar is too large to just fling over your shoulder, but a mandolin you’re able to clip on and hitchhike or hop freight trains. That as an attractive element there.”

The bluegrass band returns Thursday at Wooly’s to play its third Des Moines show this year. The band won’t be playing in its hometown of Minneapolis during this little run of dates. Sipe said the band has cut back on hometown shows, but that those fans usually still have opportunities to see all or part of the band.

“We’ve tried to limit exposure in our city to bigger shows we’re producing, so that when we do play they really pop for us,” Sipe said. “Just the other day we did a show in Duluth, which helps appease fans who will drive in. But in Minneapolis itself we all dork around in other bands and side projects. So if people want to see us, they know where to go to see us play, even if it’s not Pert Near Sandstone.”

Visitors to the band’s website may have noticed a “2013 — TBA New Album” on its discography. Sipe said the band overestimated its ability to get the album done, but that mixing is done and Pert Near Sandstone is doing some final tuning of the songs and a bit more recording. Spring 2014 is a more likely release date.

But Sipe said some of the new material is slipping out in live shows, they just don’t draw attention to it.

“Ideally while we’re recording an album we like to work in material throughout our shows before we go into the studio. But this album we wrote sort of differently,” Sipe said. “We had a marathon session over three days of everyone sitting down and sharing songs and writing lyrics. So we have all these songs that aren’t road tested. We want to try to keep the spontaneity of that marathon session while also cleaning up some things because the songs aren’t being played as much live. Something might seem solid in the studio, but once you get on stage it’s a whole different ballgame.”

These days Sipe does most of his traveling with the band, but said that he still gets urges to hit the road in his old train-hopping manner. Sipe said at this point tours might be the closest he gets.

“As you get older it gets harder to do the traveling I was doing,” Sipe said. “But it’s a great way to meet people. Honestly, you can’t hear a damn thing when you’re playing mandolin in a box car, but it still makes you feel like Woody Guthrie.”